North-East reporter reveals TWO signings Rafa Benitez wants to secure in January

According to The Mirror’s North-East reporter Simon Bird, Rafa Benitez is looking to sign a left-back and a number 10 in the January transfer window – however it seems the club will continue to look at players of a certain age.

Last week’s release of the Fans Forum minutes confirmed that a left-back would be on the agenda again in January – also stating that the club would be looking at ‘exciting high quality young players who can make a difference’ – however it seems Rafa also wants a no.10.

Whilst Muto and Perez can operate in the second striker role, a proper playmaker is something we’ve lacked for years now, with our lack of cover for Paul Dummett having also been a long standing issue at left-back.

Here’s a snippet from Simon Bird’s piece for The Mirror, claiming there will be ‘cash to spend’ on both positions:

“As the club struggled to get a win on the pitch, senior officials including MD Lee Charnley have insisted there is cash to spend.

An attacking left back is wanted in January, along with a No10, and they must be “exciting high-quality young players who can make a difference.”

Part of this will come following the release of the Fans Forum minutes, with the last line being a snippet taken from that.

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The club have insisted that there IS money to spend, however that raises real questions as to why neither a left-back or no.10 was secured over the summer.

Given how important the winter window could be towards convincing Benitez to sign a new deal, let’s hope Rafa is handed the funds to sign both.

We saw the impact both Dubravka and Kenedy had last season and something similar may be needed this time around to give us that mid-season boost.

(Fancy writing for us? Send any articles/ideas over to us at [email protected] & we’ll get back to you!)